The Advocacy Shop is a strategic partner driven by public policy change.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to provide unparalleled political advisory services, guiding clients through the complex landscape of policy and governance with strategic insight and finesse.

OUR DIFFERENCE

Deep and Diversified Advocacy, Campaign, and Coalition Expertise

20+ years, 30+ states, 50+ issues, bipartisan and partisan approaches. You will benefit from tried-and-tested strategies and innovative approaches tailored to your unique needs and goals.

Personalized and Collaborative Approach

No two campaigns are the same. We don’t sell tactics, we customize based on your organization’s capacities, people, needs, and voice. We believe the best results come from working in partnership and collaboration with you and key stakeholders.

Client-Centric Philosophy / Results-Driven Focus

We start with the results needed and build around your needs and capacities with a focus on delivering measurable results along the way. Our results-driven mindset ensures every action we take is purposeful and aimed at achieving the desired results, shifting as needed.

Commitment to teaching what we know, building capacity, continual learning

Our goal is to empower our clients by sharing experience and knowledge, building your internal capacity as we go. Our commitment to continual learning ensures we stay ahead of trends, offering cutting-edge insights and strategies. Our commitment to an educational approach equips you to sustain advocacy efforts long after our engagement ends.


FOUNDER & CEO

Having worked in varying capacities in issue advocacy, political campaigns, public policy, and the private sector, Laurie appreciates the varied perspectives and experience developed over her 18+ year career. Her unique perspectives ensure consideration of political realities for decision-makers in their districts, on the campaign trail, and inside the legislative building, as well as the realities for stakeholders working to make public policy change in short- and long-term timeframes increasingly with dynamic coalitions and careful alignment needed.

The Advocacy Shop is a continuation of the government and public affairs practice Laurie started in 2014. In 2016, she merged with Walk West, a digital marketing and strategic communications agency. As a partner and Vice President of Strategic Communications, she led the public relations, video production, government and public affairs practices. In that role, Laurie built and scaled a multi-million dollar practice that combined sophisticated marketing, communications, and digital capabilities to her already robust traditional advocacy, grasstops, and campaigns tactics. During that time, Walk West was named an Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Company three years in a row. In 2020, Laurie re-launched The Advocacy Shop to provide boutique consulting and campaign capabilities to clients with issue and mission-led advocacy goals. Laurie previously served for six years as Vice President of The Stewart Group, Inc., a political consulting, public affairs, and corporate public relations firm in Raleigh.

She is a graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in English: Language, Writing, and Rhetoric and is a fellow of the E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders, the Institute of Political Leadership, and is a member of the State Government Affairs Council.

Laurie Onorio

VICE PRESIDENT

Kate White brings over fifteen years experience working in public policy and advocacy to our team. She has worked to advance public policy initiatives from within both the public and private sector and understands the need to balance competing priorities in order to move an issue forward.

As a Senior Program Associate at the Energy Foundation, she helped establish a regional office and portfolio of grants to meet the foundation’s climate and clean energy goals in the Southeast US. In this capacity, Kate worked directly with funders, advocates, and stakeholders to develop and execute policy and campaign goals across twelve states. In 2018, she joined Walk West as an Account Director to lead the agency’s government and public affairs clients in the Strategic Communications practice. In this position, she worked with nonprofits, associations, and for-profit clients to achieve their policy and communications goals across a wide variety of issue sets, including clean energy, healthcare, technology, and education. From national influencer campaigns to statewide legislative initiatives, she developed and executed successful strategies to educate, empower, and engage the public on important issues such as clean water, flu vaccinations, insurance reform, and child abuse.

A proud member of the Wolfpack, Kate is a two-time graduate of North Carolina State University, with an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a Master in Public Administration. She also holds a Certificate in Renewable Energy Management from the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center.

Kate White

WORKING WITH US

Our Strategic Process

1

Assess

Know where you stand, evaluate your internal capacities and abilities by budget. We don’t start blind.


2

Plan + Design

Develop your plan of action and design the campaign from top to bottom in a way that can be implemented internally or with the help of external consultants and experts.


3


Implement + Manage

The Advocacy Shop can implement and manage your issue campaigns, keeping your internal teams informed along the way.

4


Evaluate + Refine

We consistently evaluate and refine our campaigns to meet shifts, challenges, and opportunities. Don’t let your campaigns get stale and don’t wait to respond.

TRUSTED THROUGH THE YEARS BY

Mission-driven organizations inspire us.

We want to hear about your issues and help you achieve your public policy and issue campaign goals.